Car Complications

This past weekend I had car complications. First a flat tire and then something wrong with the steering. However I thank God for people who are willing to help. When I got the flat tire-three guys from a nearby shop came over and changed the tire for me although it was no easy task. I had my first opportunity of buying a tire. Then praise God that I have to park my car at a local garage at night because they were the ones who informed me of the some kind of steering problem - they told me I should not continue to drive until it is fixed. Thank God for the CAMA office where we have wonderful staff-one of the Khmer staff members came out and took a look at the car and said yes it did need to have work done. So the next day he took care of the whole thing for me. It is a wonderful blessing to have people who can help because I do not know all the words to be able to communicate about car problems and such. So even when there are complication there are also encouraging thins too. Now everything is good with the car.

A Walk in Water

It rained early this morning before I left for church. When I arrived the church was flooded from the gate at the entrance and through the sanctuary. There is a portion of the building that was not flooded because it was on higher ground up some steps. In order to get into any part of the church we had to walk in the water. So I hiked up my pant legs and waded through the water which was up to mid calf - cold and dirty. We meet in the area above the water- a small room which soon became filled with people. I was suprised at the number of people that came because another missionary told me that if the church is flooded most of the people's houses are flooded as well.

Battambang

Last week I traveled to this province with some other missionaries on my team to discuss ideas about development and ministry in Cambodia. This was for the new missionaries on the team and the time together was led by the Strongs. They helped us to think about things that are important when getting involved here in Cambodia. We talked about worldview, insider and outsider, working with the poor...It was things that probably all of us have thought about already but it was good to discuss them as a group and hear different ideas. There are still alot of questions but everything we talked about is food for thought. We will always need to be learning from one another and from the nationals.

Teaching Lesson 2

Yesterday I met with the girls at the dorm to discuss lesson two-it was about how sin entered the world. This week the girls suprised me because they actually had questions to ask me that they wanted to discuss. This I was excited about because when they ask questions I feel like we are actually discussing and learning. However, they asked questions that are difficult to answer even in English. Questions like: Why did God create Satan? Why did God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden? When did God create the angels?...Well I did my best to try and give them some answers and things to think about but again language can still be a barrier at times.
Also I am still learning how to pray in Khmer-I can pray short prayers like to open the meeting, but at the end of the meeting I asked if one of them would pray and no one wanted to so they told me I could pray in English for the requests that were mentioned.
Please pray that I would grow in ability to communicate and in my leadership skills as well.